Fire-escape.



J. BOULIEU & P. BRADY.

FIRE ESCAPE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 10. 1914.

1,147,365. Patented July 20, 1915.

amen W04 (Jam fiauZiea pnrrnp srarn's PATENT @hhifilt.

JOHN BOULIZEU AND PATRICK BRADY, OF SAULT STE. MARIE, MICHIGAN. f

FIRE-ESCAPE. j

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed November 10, 1914. Serial N 0.871354. I

7 To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JOHN Bowman and PATRICK BRADY, citizens of the United States, residing at Sault Ste. Marie, in the county of Chippewa and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fire-Escapes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in fire escapes and has as its primary object to provide a device of this character which may be readily attached to the wall of a building adjacent a door or window opening therein or in any other suitable position, and which may be readily employed by persons in making I their escape from the building to effect their descent to the groundor' other place of safety. 7 j

The invention has as a further'object to provide an improved device of this character, which will be simple in construction and which will provide means whereby persons may,without danger, readily lower themselves to a point of safety;

A still further obje'ct'of the invention in this connection is to provide a device of this character employing means whereby the persons using the "fire escape may easily regulate the rapidity of their descent to the ground to thus insure their escape without injury. And the invention has as a still further object to generally improvethe construction and increase the efiiciency of devices of the above described character. 7

WVith these and other objectsin View, our

I invention will be more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and then specificallypointed out in the claims which are attached to and form a part of this application. 7 1

In the accompanying drawings :-Figure 1 is an end elevation of our improved fire escape particularly illustrating the arrangement of the baskets employed, Fig. 2 is a fragmentary side elevation showing the manner in which the fire escape is disposed to be attached to the wall of a building,

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary detail view of one of the brakes carried by'the baskets, Fig. 4 is a detail perspective view of one of'the brake arms disposed to coact with the brake illustrated in Fig. 3 of the drawings, and Fig. 5 is a detail perspective view illustrating-the brake shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings detached.

Patented July so, 1915.

- Corresponding and like parts'are referred I to in the following description and indi cated in all the views of the drawing by the same reference characters.

Referring more particularly to the drawingsfwe employ a supporting frame indi-- cated as a whole at 10 which may be formed 1 of wood or any, othersuitable materialand the opposite ends of which include vertically arranged members 11 intermediate of whichis disposed a member 12,.the members ployed, the said braces extending in opposite directions between the ends of the frame.

The frame 10 is-disposed to be.attached to the wall of a building exteriorly thereof adjacent a door or window opening in the sald wall where convenlent access may be had to, the baskets forming apart of our improved fire escape and which will be later described. To this end, the frame lO upon its upper side and at one end thereof is provided with a loop 17 which may be secured to the frame in any convenient mannerand which isdisposed to engage a suitable hook driven intothe wall of the building, this being best shown in Fig. 20f the drawings.

It will be observed that the loop 17 is disposed. to support the frame laterally of the wall with the adj ac'ent end .of'the said frame I abutting the wall, it, of course, being understood that the frame may readily 'detached when desired.

Mounted upon't'he frame 10 intermediate the members 1'2 and"su'pported thereon by suitable .gudgeons 18is'awinding drum 19,

the said drum being preferably of less diameter midway its ends than at its extremities'as best illustrated in Fig. '2 of .the

drawing and being formed at its ends with annular friction faces 20. Coactmg w th said frlct on faces are brake arms or levers 21.

The brake arms 21 maybe formed'of any suitable material and are each pivotally' mounted at one extremity upon asuitable rod 22 extending transversely between the members 11' of the frame, uponeach side thereof, it being observed uponreference to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings that the said brake arms are reversely arranged with their free extremities projecting in opposite directions. Intermediate the ends thereof, each of the brake arms 21 is cut away upon its lower side to provide a concave face 23 disposed to fit over the adjacent annular friction face 20 formed on the drum.

The arms 21 are preferably of a length equal to the width of the frame 10 and connected to the outer free extremities of the said arms are cables 24 to which are attached, at their lower free extremities, suitable weights 25. The cables 241 are of a length to extend to a point adjacent the ground, or other point of safety relative to the frame 10 and it will, therefore, be understood that in practical use, the length of the said cables will be adjusted according to the height of the frame 10 from the ground or other point of safety, to attain this end. It will be observed that the weights 25 are disposed to maintain the brake arms 21 in operative engagement with the drum 19 to, under normal circumstances, maintain the drum stationary.

Operatively connected with the drum 19 are baskets 26, the said baskets being each disposed to receive a person and being supported at the extremities of a suitable cable 27 coiled intermediate its ends around the drum, the cable being preferably passed around the drum several times, as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings. By this arrangement, it will be observed that as one basket makes its ascent, the other basket will make its descent upon the rotation of the drum 19 and particular attention is directed to the fact that owing to the opposite longitudinal taper of the drum 19, the cable 27 will be maintained in proper position thereon substantially midway its ends.

While the baskets 26 may be of any conventional construction, still, we preferably employ a rigid rim or frame 28 to the opposite sides of which at its extremities is connected a flexible member 29. Extending from the rim 28 and converging above the baskets are a plurality of flexible members 30, the adjacent extremities of which are connected in any suitable manner to the adjacent end of the cable 27. This construction provides a very simple and eflicient form of basket in which a person may readily place himself to efiect his escape from a building in case of fire, as will presently appear.

' Mounted upon the rim 28 of each of the baskets 26 and arranged upon one side thereof, is a rope grip indicated as a whole in Fig. 3 of the drawings at 31, said grips being disposed to coact with the brake arms 21 in controlling the movement of the drum 19 against the weight of a load. Each of the grips 31 includes a body portion or sleeve 32 which is centrally bored longitudinally as at 33 to loosely receive the adjacent cable 2 1. Formed upon the body portion 32 of each of said grips upon one side thereof is a laterally extending ear or lug 341 which is apertured to receive a suitable pintle 35 connecting the grip with a bracket 36, each of said brackets being secured in any suitable manner and at one extremity to the frame of the adjacent basket.

As shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings, the grips 31 are mounted upon the baskets 26 and in position to be conveniently accessible, and integrally formed upon the body portion 32 of each of said grips is a laterally extending arm 37 which may be readily grasped to effect the operation of the grips.

It will be noted that as the drum 19 rotates to move the baskets 26, the grips 31 will normally slide upon the cables 24. However, to bring either of said grips into engagement with the adjacent cable, the body portion of the grip is moved upon its pivot by the arm 37 thereof to bring the bore 33 out of alinement with the said cable, when owing to the presence of the weight 25 upon the cable tending to hold it in a vertical plane, the grip will frictionally engage the cable during the descent of the basket to consequently pull downwardly upon the brake arm 21 coacting with said cable causing the face 23 of said arm to engage the adjacent friction face 20 of the drum, and thus arrest or impede the movement of the drum. By this arrangement, a person within either of the baskets 26 may easily regulate or control the rapidity of their descent from a building through operating the grip 31 upon the basket to cause said grip to bring the brake arm 21 coacting therewith into such frictional engagement with the drum as circumstances may require to prop erly control the rotation of the drum against the weight of the load.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A device of the character described in cluding a frame, a winding drum carried by the frame and operatively supporting a basket, braking means adapted to engage the drum, gravity actuated means carried by said first mentioned means, and means carmeans carried by the basket and adapted to be moved into frictional engagement With said flexible element to coact Wth the gravitating influence of the Weight for urging the lever to engage the drum.

3. A device of the character described including a frame, a Winding drum carried by the frame and operatively supporting a basket, a lever arranged upon the frame and adapted to engage the drum, a flexible element connected to said lever, a Weight supported by said element, and a grip carried by the basket and adapted to be moved into frictional engagement With said flexible element to coact With the gravitating influence of the Weight forurging the lever to engage the drum.

4:. A device of the character described including a frame, a Winding drum carried by movement to flex the said element whereby the grip Will coact With the gravit'ating influence of the Weight to frictionally engage the'said element for urging the brake to engage the drum.

In testimony whereof e aflix our signatures in presence of two Witnesses.

JOHN B'OULIEU. [L.s.] PATRICK BRADY. [L. s.] Witnesses:

FRANK P. SULLIVAN, HATTIE B. MCMAHON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

